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I just find being outside cathartic and relaxing. Hence all of the recent posts about awd vehicles and such.

So I see this thread really should be titled "How often do you pay someone to change your oil?"

A tiny bit sad tonight...get to say goodbye to an old ride tomorrow. Wife’s old 2003 Cavalier is going to my MIL’s BF tomorrow. At least it gets to go to a person who will still take care of it..... While it’s laughable to be sad about a Cav, I guess when you have it for nearly 17 years it simply grows on you. Lots of memories in that car! Wife is sadly putting pressure on the other Cavalier we have, my 2004- to get rid of it as well. While she knows it’s my “project” car ( and still runs great, rust free, but needs a new cluster-thanks GM) as she thinks we need to start preparing for the worse and saving money everywhere we can. I’d like to think we wouldn’t have to go that far...

Both neighbors that are on either side of my house are computer engineers like me. Unlike me they hate yard work or working on auto's, motors, etc. They both asked me when they moved in about mower recommendations. Sadly both are rather cheap as they were not willing to pay the price for an EGO. They both went with $150 ice mowers and now 5 years later, they have spent about $150 a year to have the mowers tuned up, fuel tank drained, oil changed each spring as they are smart developers, but cannot seem to think of draining the gas, and doing the basic maintenance of an ICE motor. So each spring they bitch and then pay a guy to come to their house to get their mowers running again. They both have agreed they should have bought the EGO mowers. While you Balthazar like to work on motors, many people do not. Even I while liking working on auto's and will when needed, would rather not have to deal with them and have less maintenance and work. Great that you have gone years on a single spark plug as I remember my top of the line Sears 6.5 HP mower till I retired it was only on a single spark plug that was the original since I bought it new. Yet cheaper ICE mowers seem to require more maintenance is my observation. Sadly, most people do not want to deal with yard maintenance so I always tell people, if you do not like yard work then pay to have it done.

I have contemplated buying an electric mower and doing it myself..but I'm sure after one round I'd be in a world of pain from my back. Shoveling a bit this week has left me in extreme pain... I'd need a riding mower. I still don't know how my folks did it all those years on the farm (mowing several acres w/a fleet of Snapper riding mowers). The good thing is up here in the CLE we have generally much less humidity in the summer than most of Ohio, it's not as gross outside in summer than I remember it being down in Tuscarawas County (where the family farm is), so mowing then wouldn't be too awful.

Dealing with all that shit is why I prefer having a yard service...I'd rather pay people that specialize in yard work to do it than waste my time...

It's not that I have an 'issue' with a gas mower maintenance, it's simply that there's basically none to do. They run forever. A can of gas lasts me all year. A spark plug and blade last 10. And gas mowers "leak fluids" about as often as electrics 'leak acids and spew ozone' from the arcing motors. It's a lot of nonsense. But you go ahead and justify your $1000 push mower any way you need to. Model 3 was initially promised to be $35K, but the bulk stickered at $47-54K. A couple years later and an 'off menu' stripped 3 is available, if you know about it, at $35K, but is dropped after about 6 months. Meanwhile, Tesla slips the low-priced Model S & X off the menu, raising the ante' there. Most of the recent EV introductions have centered around the 'LaLa land' $70K tier. OEM costs are irrelevant if they're not passed on to consumers.

As one that is not afraid to pay 500 to 600 dollars for a quality mower, I have always had self driven mowers and Once EGO came out with their quality electric mower and I changed over, I will never go back. From the noise to the leaking fluids if you tip it and the maintenance while not a big deal and some like you and I have no problem with it, many people do and I see no need to have that frustration when electric can resolve so much of what I see as short comings of ICE mowers. Like EVs they start out high but are coming down and make far more sense to me than sticking with ICE. Noise and smell alone is a reason to go with an electric Mower over gas. Eventually autos will do the same as EVs will eventually replace all ICE, but till then we have a great variety to buy and use.

If they’re paying $150/yr for push mower maintenance, perhaps they consider that a perk of a luxury lifestyle. Or; dey’s a dummy.

Interesting that dual clutch transmission is making its way into motorcycles. Honda Africa Twin has it for one.... You have a point in terms of people not wanting to work on them....

Spring & fall mower maintenance... extensive spark plugs...??? Do you have ‘mower OCD’?? I’ve had the same spark plug in my mower.... I couldn’t even guess how many years. I don’t get where all the hyping up of IC engine maintenance is coming from. It’s not a burden at all. So; no then. Gotcha.

You did?!? I'm going to vote on the Monte Carlo with sideways squiggly Coke bottle headlamps. - - - - - You blink and you miss it or, should I say, you blink and things change. Since we've been discussing when the next Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 will arrive, I looked at the current website to see what these cars are up to. They pretty much continue as we know them. But I found something interesting. In both 2020 and 2021, the basic Chrysler 300 is back to standard cloth seats, in both black and tan. With tan, you still get a black dashboard and other trim bits. That's cost control at work. We saw the same thing with the very last Grand Prix sedan. Changing the entry level seat offerings to cloth probably enables them to keep the price point of around $30 K MSRP. If you think about, when you change the sofa you order from fabric to leather (not something I'd do), the price goes way up. Both still beautiful vehicles - inside and out - in my book.

I would never use a Grease Monkey / Jiffy Lube- heard a handful of horror stories. I've changed my own oil for decades now. Rule of thumb is; I'm fine if I don't have to jack the vehicle up. The exception here is the Jeep Liberty; don't have to jack it up but getting the filter out is a PITA, so I don't do it. Actually got the Chevy dealer to change it last time! Bet they don't see many Jeeps in there. Have a very good service department there... but I have not & won't wait in a dealer / service outfit while my vehicle is worked on. Drives me crazy.